The invention is an entirely new communication medium: an encapsulated interactive experiential program, embodied in digital information, which adds interactivity and functionality to a separate linear media program such as a digital audio or digital video file.
The experience of using, or “consuming”, audio or video programs such as songs, TV shows, movies, etc., is inherently linear. That is, such a program has a specific duration measurable in hours, minutes, or seconds, and is “consumed” by the listener or viewer from start to finish. We therefore refer to this type of program as a “linear” experience. Further, the role of the viewer is passive and non-interactive—there is nothing for this person to do except to listen and/or to view.
As opposed to linear, non-interactive media, there is also a field known as “interactive multimedia”, in which elements of linear media such as audio and video are combined with computer software and hardware-based controllers, in order to facilitate interactivity, in which a user is actively involved, and controls the experience. Examples of such interactive media include educational software and computer-based games. In these examples, the linear media and the computer software are tightly interwoven into a single product, such as an interactive CD-ROM, or a single computing device-based or Web-based application.
These well-established technologies are commonplace, and can be very useful, or entertaining. They do, however, have some constraints, which limits their utility and functionality in some ways, and which creates significant financial costs and legal burdens for creators of such interactive media. Some of these burdens are described below in the following paragraphs.
Tight coupling requires license from copyright owners. Because interactive multimedia consists of original software interwoven with audio or video material that is generally subject to copyright law, creators of such products (called “authors”) must negotiate and pay for licenses to permit their distribution and sale.
Authoring is complex and highly specialized, and can generally only be performed by trained personnel using expensive tools (typically specialized authoring software).
The cost of such interactive media is high, because the cost of tools, skilled authors, copyright license fees and other components can be very significant. In some disciplines—especially that of education—such economic burdens can frequently be high enough to prevent a great many desirable, beneficial products from being made at all.
Traditional interactive multimedia programs are typically not extensible in terms of functionality. It is generally not possible for one party to add to or otherwise enhance the content of an interactive multimedia program once it has been released to consumers.
Traditional interactive multimedia programs are typically not configurable in terms of their presentation of information. Generally, interactive multimedia products are designed for a single style of deployment environment. Though the user can usually control the flow of activity during use of the product, there is little opportunity to adapt the product to diverse hardware configurations, such as a differing number of multiple display screens from one user's location to another's.
The invention described herein overcomes the above constraints in a number of novel ways, which are enumerated below. From this point forward, for brevity, we will use the name ESSP (Encapsulated Synchronized Secondary Program) for the invention. We will also use the name PLP for the Primary Linear Program—the audio or video file that is associated with the ESSP.